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Caroline Schnakers

Since the beginning of her carrer, Dr
Caroline Schnakers focused her research on severely brain
-
injured patients recovering coma and, more particularly, on the
detection of conscious
cognitive activity using behavioral and e
lectrophysiological techniques
. She has
shown the
difficulty to detect signs of consciousness (40% of error rate) and
the difference of sensitivity
between existing coma scales to detect these signs.
In parallel, She has
developed
electrophysiological paradi
gms for detecting conscious cognitive activity without the
intervention of motor functions (using mental tasks such as
counting) in severely brain
-
injured patients who are unable to actively interact with their
surroundings.
She has
also
developed a testing
solely based on ocular responses allowing the assessment of
cognitive
functions in patients with severe motor dysfunctions (locked
-
in syndrome; characterized by
anarthria, quadriplegia and preserved consciousness).
Finally, s
he has
created and validated
th
e first scale
allowing pain assessment in patients with disorders of
consciousness.
In 2010,
she
has
received the Young Investigator Award from the International Brain
Injury
Association in recognition of my work.
She has
published around 60 articles (H
-
inde
x: 30)
and
she
i
s
the editor of a book untitled “Coma and Disorders of consciousness”
(Springer
-
Verlag, Paris, 2011; Springer
-
Verlag, London, 2012).
Until recently,
Dr Schnakers
worked with
the Coma Sci
enc
e Group
. She is
now
working at
the UC
LA department of Psychology and Neurosurgery